Property Council executive Sally Capp and ALP’s Jennifer Yang fight to become Lord Mayor

SALLY Capp and ALP member Jennifer Yang are the final pair fighting it out for the keys to Town Hall, according to electoral observers.

MELBOURNE’S new lord mayor is likely to be a woman, say the city’s council election observers.

Based on votes seen so far, consensus is emerging that Property Council executive Sally Capp and ALP member Jennifer Yang will fight it out for the keys to Town Hall.

Ms Capp is believed to be leading the field with about 30 per cent of the vote, but she will need a strong preference flow to get her over 50 per cent to win.

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With her No.2 position on the ballot paper, she is benefiting from the so-called donkey vote in which some people simply number the boxes from top to bottom without taking note of who the candidates are.

It is generally thought that Greens candidate and sitting councillor Rohan Leppert has performed poorly, and will likely be outpolled by Ms Yang.

Mayoral candidate Jennifer Yang at the Queen Vic Market. Picture: Wayne Taylor

It is predicted that with the distribution of preferences, the race will come down to Ms Capp and Ms Yang.

“Sally will get to 45 per cent. The question then is whether she gets that extra bit to get over the line,” said one pundit.

Another predicted that Ms Capp would win 57-43 against Ms Yang.

A better idea of voting trends will be known Thursday when the Victorian Electoral Commission starts data entry of ballots, and candidates are given information of raw ­numbers.

As of late Wednesday, 81,200 ballot papers out of 144,550 ­enrolled voters had been ­received.